A brief narration of my superman trip to Bangkok

Ok! So its 11:13 pm just now and I just got in the mood of writing. Something which I had wanted to do for a while but by which my laziness actually was not allowing me. Somehow, I beat that laziness today with a little bit of yoga session in the evening followed by a healthy green diet. Well at times I am pretty active that I feel like putting my leg in every thing I come across and sometimes I am like an owl awake the whole night. So with a hot cup of “chai” I am sitting here in front of the laptop ready to go and talk about my superman trip experience to Bangkok before the laziness takes over me and makes me drowse down. I call it the “Superman” trip because everything happened so fast and by the time I realized it, I had come back from my trip also. I am not going to write much into depth because most of the readers have been to Bangkok and this post will be a brief sharing of my experience.

Bangkok is a very common word we get to hear from the Bhutanese people. It is a metaphor of Jaigaon for them. It is like we get to hear this word from every Bhutanese starting from a kid to an older generation. And if you say that you have not been to this place they will stare at you like something has terribly happened or you are an alien. So I also thought when anyone can go to Bangkok then why not me too. Alas! I don’t get sponsors to take me around…:D…I will have to manage on my own. I have always loved travelling and visiting new places. Not that of a shopping insect but I love visiting and checking out the new places. “It is a big place, a commercial hub, you will get lost in the airport if you don’t read the instructions properly, don’t talk much with strangers, they will hallucinate you and rob you” – were some of the words which I would hear from those with whom I had discussed about my wanting to travel to Bangkok. But it really doesn’t happen in real. Hello! Not every finger is same atleast. So you’ve got to trust your instincts and move on.

My trip to Bangkok came as a dream where I had not even planned. Usually I plan at the beginning of the year about where I want to travel and then I plan and manage accordingly. It all happened when some of my friends working at Bangkok had visited Bhutan. I later thought “why not make this trip when your friends are already down there”. I contacted my friends, discussed with them and planned accordingly and that’s how I worked out to travelling in December 2017 during Christmas time. So I geared up with plans to visit places along with my friends with my documents and budget all ready. Just when there was a week or 10 days left for me to travel, I got a message from my friends saying that they had to travel to other places because of work. I was like staring blankly and didn’t have an answer for it. No answer because I didn’t have an answer as my tickets were there for which I would not even get half a refund and then opportunities don’t come again. I was with mixed feeling mainly because I didn’t have an answer and didn’t know how to go about responding to the situation. Well, my friend who was at Bangkok was nice enough to leave her apartment keys and guide me about the place through video conversation before she left for other place due to work. All things said and done, I considered the trip and opportunity and didn’t want to let it go waste and of course considering my flight tickets I decided I would travel SOLO to Bangkok. Yes you got it right SOLO!  I would be called crazy by most of the people after coming to know that I was ready to travel alone. Common! Its not just you but rather there are so many people who travel SOLO and sometimes travelling SOLO becomes interesting.

You guys can just imagine the number of YouTube videos which I used to watch on a daily basis to get knowledge on travelling solo. What to carry, what not to carry, food, lodging, places to visit etc etc and things to note which was never ending. I found such type of videos very informative and would definitely recommend to those also who are making such solo plans to travel to different places.  Fortunately, just a few days before the travel, I got some girls company to travel along with to Bangkok. They happened to be friends of one of my colleagues at work. I was a bit scared initially when I decided to travel alone of course considering the good thing that my friend had left me her apartment’s keys and guided me well through video conversation. Of course my mom was also a bit hesitant initially when I decided to travel alone but later she supported my idea. And more over things changed at the last minute and I had friends to travel along with.  Before starting the journey, along with watching YouTube guide tutorials I also browsed the internet to check on the different places to visit and the food to taste during the travel. I didn’t have to worry for the lodging as my friend’s apartment was readily available.

So finally my trip to the beautiful city of Bangkok started on 22.12.2017. I felt funny because a year back at this same time I had never thought that someday I would be making my travel plans to Bangkok and here I was getting ready. I met my colleague and other friends at the Paro International Airport. People would and will definitely laugh at me now if I ever told them that back then I didn’t even know how to pronounce the famous “Suvarnabhumi airport”. I wonder and doubt people might consider me from village. I think precisely it was a 4.5 hours journey to Bangkok. Flying through Bodhgaya, India we reached Bangkok late night and by the time we got into our hotels it was almost about 12 am. I am not going to give lots of descriptions here about the places you got to visit etc. All these information can be easily obtained from many other bloggers.  It was basically a short trip and I was there with my bag pack. We often see many of our Bhutanese just wearing one set of clothes while going to Bangkok and while coming back there will be piles of suitcases. Personally, I felt the city to be a commercial hub. You can get your hands on high end as well as budgetary products and all depends on how you manage the time accordingly. Good thing being it was comfortable to get sim cards from the airport and the super infinity validity of these sims. Basically, my mobile’s cellular data was on the “ON” mode the whole time. There are these recent applications in the mobile i.e. Google map and taxi applications like UBER, GRAB etc which makes the travel much more friendly and comfortable thus making it the less chance of getting lost in the city. We had this different experience of staying at different hotels including my friend’s apartment. We travelled in the taxis, the local “tuk-tuk” amazing experience. Oh! How could I forget the experience of travelling the city in the sky trains! Then the famous MBK Mall, the Siam Paragon, Siam Discovery, Tokyo Market where you could buy all luxuries. And me getting lost most of the time and by the time I would find my way back it would be late. I remember some of my friends whom I met during the stay there told me about them getting lost at times even though they have been in the city for almost more than 3-4 years.  And then there was this market too where I think in local language it would be called “Chor bazaar” because the market starts from 2 am and closes at 6 am. I had never come across such a market and it was my first time in it. Surprisingly, people were pretty active and eating their meals like their normal morning time meal. It was interesting and I suggest checking out such places where sometimes you get interesting items. It was a know-how trip to look into items which were available in every range starting from high end to drug store, electronic market, gadgets, fashion and many more. I even visited the place where only foreigners were there and since it was a Christmas Eve, I could literally see the particular area in disco mode. So you can very well imagine how the place must have been. We are used to seeing different dresses in the party halls but here the road was a party hall and with no objection on the dress code it was really looking like an eve. A kind of a city I felt who hardly sleeps. I loved the 7-11 shop which was opened throughout the times. I especially loved the way the coffee was prepared. For a coffee addict like me, it would be a blessing in disguise had I to stay there. I realized that if ever I got the chance to stay at Bangkok, my habits would be spoiled first of all because food is so easily available and I might be buying and eating from these 7-11 shops most frequently. Which means my kitchen would be very neat and clean..:) I have been a diehard fan of sea foods and baby octopus has always fascinated me. I find them very tasty along with prawns, lobsters and all such green sour salads. It was fun getting an experience to try your hands on the rice noodles. How could I have skipped that especially for someone who is a noodle freak and can do anything for noodles! Sadly there were places where I could not travel like Phuket beach, Pataya beach and where I would have loved to go. Nevertheless hopefully someday I will get a chance to travel again and now atleast I can say that I am confident enough to travel by myself the next time again. There are so many places to see, places to visit, roam around and yet there are still more places to go. It is definitely a budget friendly place and it all depends upon the individual on how he/she is managing their expenses.

I took a bag pack by which I didn’t have to carry much and moreover it was just a few days travel. Travelling has always been near and dear to me. I love travelling and checking out new places, the people, the culture, the society and all such. Not that much of a shopping spree so it becomes comfortable to check out different places with just a few items to be brought back as memory, I had the best few days of my life at Bangkok. Trying out new cuisines, meeting new people, getting lost in the crowd but then again able to find my way back through Google map, the super fast free internet, the sky train experience was truly incredible. One thing which I really loved during my stay there was the fact that people were least bothered about what you are wearing, what you are talking and they really don’t have that ample time to sit down and gossip about others. Everyone is working with the concept of survival of the fittest. It is a city where everyone works to survive, maximum of them I found were good enough to talk back and help when you required, there is no time for anyone to sit down and talk about others. By the time one gets back to their home, they would be tired and just go to sleep. I am definitely going to travel again in the future and keep this trend of my travelling interest going on by travelling more to other countries in the near future. Bangkok was just a start with a BANG!!!

A busy night street outside Central World

With the beauties (ignoring the glass one)

Street Food

The disco road (I'd call that) during the Christmas eve

Seriously...!

Meeting and parting are just a part of the journey...see you next time until then 
"Khapon khap"!